Game design document

Last Call: game design document

BYOG 2026 · Theme: Everything Is Temporary · Designer: Saathvik (Working title was "Kaal: Everything Is Temporary". Kaal stays the villain's name.)

Game at a glance

Last Call is a top-down sci-fi pixel-art action game with 5 levels. The title points to the distress calls that start every level, and to the final call: Mira's voice asking "Papa, are you coming?" Veer, a cargo pilot, lands for fuel, answers distress calls and becomes a Ranger, then loses everything he saved. The art target is highly detailed pixel art. The camera and gameplay stay top-down.

Story check: open endings (all closed)

Result: one clear ending. Veer wins, dies and takes Kaal with him. Tara survives and becomes the next Ranger.

Characters

10 named characters plus 5 enemy types.

Main cast

NPCs

Enemies (the Void)

Level-by-level design

Levels 1 to 3 build Veer up. Levels 4 and 5 take everything away. No level starts with a fight: every level has a calm arrival, an event, a quest and a return to the ship.

Why Veer keeps landing: fuel and distress calls

Veer's ship Asha (Hindi for "hope"; Mira named it) is his old cargo ship. Its jump drive burns one fuel cell per jump, so he must land on every planet to refuel. While the tank fills, a distress call always comes in from the next planet. Every voice reminds him of Mira, so he always goes.

The 4-step level flow

1. Arrive (calm): land, walk, talk to people, explore. No enemies.
2. Trigger: refuelling starts, then an attack or disaster hits.
3. Quest: an NPC gives hints. Explore the map, solve a task and fight the Void on the way.
4. Resolve: return to Asha, get the fuel cell and Core Crystal, and the next distress call plays.

Core Crystals

Scrap from enemies buys permanent stat upgrades (damage, fire rate, HP) in Zoya's shop, so the player still feels some progress after crystals break. Dash (Space) is a base ability from the start.

Level 1. Kora: The Market (tutorial)

• Map: Kora trading colony under a giant glass dome on an alien moon: holo-market, holo-fountain plaza, coolant canal with a turbine station, fuel depot, dome shelter. 4x3 screens.
• Arrive: Asha lands with 3% fuel. SAATHI: "Fuel depot is past the market. Let's be quick." Walk through the busy market and talk to 2 or 3 people. Teaches move, dash and talk (E).
• Trigger: at the depot the fuel bar starts filling. Explosions. Shard Drones attack. SAATHI teaches aim and shoot in a small fight.
• Why he fights: SAATHI says it isn't their fight, but a girl screams for help and her voice sounds like Mira.
• Quest "Find Tara's parents": Tara hides under a broken stall. "Mama sells star-spices near the big holo-fountain. Papa works at the coolant turbine, past the energy bridge."
• East: fight through the burning holo-market to the holo-fountain and save Mama.
• West: the energy bridge has lost power. Puzzle: pull the turbine lever and reroute coolant to restart the bridge. Save Papa.
• Escort each parent to the dome shelter (safe zone) while drones attack.
• Optional: 3 hidden villagers for bonus scrap.
• Resolve: the family is reunited. Tara: "Will you always come back?" Veer: "I'll try." Elder Rana gives the fuel cell and the Kora Crystal.
• Distress call: Meru. "They're attacking the generators. Our children are in the shelters. If the power dies, the doors open. Please, anyone." Veer: "I'm not leaving children waiting. Not again."
• Length: about 8 minutes.

Level 2. Meru: The Generators

• Map: industrial city with streets, factory yard and the shelter. 4x3 screens.
• Arrive: land at Zoya's fuel depot. She refuels Asha and points to the generator plant.
• Trigger: the Void cuts the main power line. Shelter doors start to open. Void Gunners and Swarmlings appear.
• Why he fights: the children in the shelters are exposed if the power fails.
• Quest "Restore the power": find 3 missing fuses hidden around the city (Zoya gives hints by radio). Puzzle: switch 3 power panels in the right order to reroute power. Then defend the 3 generators for 2 minutes.
• Resolve: the shelter doors close safely. Zoya gives the Meru Crystal and opens her shop.
• Distress call: Soma Royal Council. "The whole Void army is coming for Soma, home of 10 million people. Ranger of Kora, you are our only hope." SAATHI: "They called you a Ranger, Veer." Veer: "Then let's be one."
• Length: about 8 minutes.

Level 3. Soma: The Capital (peak)

• Map: the largest map. Grand city with palace square, 4 districts and walls. 5x3 screens.
• Arrive: crowds welcome the Ranger. Chancellor Rao asks for help.
• Quest "Raise the shields": the city's 4 defense towers are offline. Find their codes by talking to citizens in each district (an engineer, a guard, a child, a priest), then activate each tower while Void Brutes attack.
• Final fight: survive 3 big waves in the palace square with every weapon. This is Veer at his peak.
• Resolve: the city cheers. Chancellor Rao gives the Soma Crystal. Veer records a message for Mira: "I'm not too late anymore, beta."
• Twist distress call: Tara, crying. "Ranger? You said you'd come back. They came back. Grandpa Rana is... please, you promised." Kaal breaks into the signal: "You saved Kora, Ranger. I unsaved it."
• Length: about 10 minutes.

Level 4. Kora: Ruins (the fall)

• Map: Level 1's map, burned and broken. Same market, fountain and mill, all in ruins.
• Arrive: silence. The Kora Crystal goes dark and the Shield breaks. SAATHI explains the crystals.
• Quest "Find Tara": search the places from Level 1 (her stall, the holo-fountain, the turbine). Collect 5 survivors and lead them to the last evacuation ship. Void Wraiths teleport in from behind.
• Mid-level: Zoya on the radio. "Meru is gone. My shop is gone. Veer, just survive." Spread Shot breaks.
• Resolve: Veer finds Tara and gives her the cracked shield plate. "Keep this. Be braver than me." The evac ship leaves.
• Final call: Mira's voice. "Papa, are you coming?" SAATHI: "It's fake. It's your old recording, coming from Kaal's fortress." Veer: "I know. I'm going anyway. This ends now."
• Length: about 8 minutes.

Level 5. Kaal's Fortress and the boss

• Map: dark fortress with corridors and 3 memory rooms (4x3 screens), then a circular asteroid arena.
• Arrive: Asha crash-lands. No way back. The minimap is full of static.
• Quest "Memory keys": find 3 keys to open the throne room. Each key plays a short flashback: Meera, Mira, Prithvi-9 exploding.
• Boss phase 1: Kaal at full power. Veer still has the Laser.
• Boss phase 2: Soma falls mid-fight. The Laser breaks. Only the basic blaster is left.
• Ending: Kaal falls. Silence. He teleports behind Veer and stabs him. Veer tells SAATHI to overload the core. Both die. The final cutscene plays.
• Length: about 8 minutes.

Cutscenes, travel and galaxy map

5 cutscenes, about 4 minutes in total: animated pixel-art panels (slow pans, zooms, text) made in Premiere Pro, exported as MP4 (1920x1080, H.264) and played with Unity's Video Player. Every cutscene can be skipped with Esc.

Shorter story moments (NPC talk, distress calls, crystals breaking, L5 flashbacks) happen in-game with dialogue boxes so the player stays in control.

Travel between planets

1. Level complete screen.
2. Galaxy map: a star map with Kora, Meru, Soma and the fortress. Saved planets light up and connect with a line. In Act 2 they go dark one by one.
3. Flight scene (5 to 10 s): Asha flies through the jump tunnel while SAATHI says one line. It also hides loading.
4. Landing and the level intro card.

Asha changes with the story: clean and bright in Act 1, smoking with a flickering engine in L4 ("Jump drive at 40%, hold on"), and it crash-lands in L5. Kaal needs no ship. He travels through Void portals, which is how he reaches planets right after Veer leaves.

Maps and minimap

Top-down pixel tilemaps built in Unity's Tilemap editor, 4x3 to 5x3 screens each. Each planet has its own tileset and palette.

Rules for explorable, playable maps

1. One screen is 480x270 pixels (upscaled 4x to 1920x1080). Tiles are 16x16.
2. Every map has a clear start, a clear goal and 2 or 3 routes between them. Never one straight corridor.
3. Mix open areas (for big fights) with narrow streets and alleys (for tension).
4. Put cover (stalls, crates, walls, pillars) in every fight area.
5. Hide side areas with scrap, villagers and small lore items to reward exploring.
6. Use big landmarks (holo-fountain, turbine, palace, towers, docked ships) so players can find their way without the minimap.
7. Make the goal area the brightest spot and lead the eye with light.
8. Reuse Level 1's map in Level 4, burned and broken.
9. Layer the detail: ground tiles, a detail layer (cracks, grass, debris), props, then a top layer for roofs and tree canopies the player walks under.

Planet palettes

Minimap (top-right corner)

• A second orthographic camera above the map renders to a Render Texture shown in a UI RawImage. Icon sprites sit on a Minimap layer only this camera sees.
• Size: 160x160 px with a pixel-art frame.
• Fog of war: unexplored areas stay dark until the player visits them.
• Icons: player (white arrow), enemies (red), NPCs (green), quest target (yellow star, pulsing), scrap (blue), safe zone (green house), ship (blue ship).
• Off-screen quest target: a yellow arrow on the minimap edge points to it.
• Tab: full-screen map of the level.
• Story touch: in L4 the minimap flickers with static. In L5 it is mostly static, and gone in the arena.

NPCs and interactions

6 talking NPCs and about 14 short conversations, each 2 to 4 lines. Walk close and a "Press E" prompt appears. E opens a dialogue box with portrait, name and typewriter text. E or left-click moves on. Gameplay pauses while talking. Distress calls play as radio messages over gameplay.

Silent NPCs (no dialogue) fill the scenes: market crowds, kids playing, guards, cheering crowds in Soma. They are sprites with idle and run animations and simple run-away behaviour when the attack starts.

AI assistant: SAATHI

SAATHI (Hindi for "companion") is the AI Veer built into his ship and suit. She talks through a small portrait box in the bottom-left corner. Her lines appear for 4 seconds and never pause the game. She is the player's guide, and her slow breakdown is part of the story.

SAATHI's final lines (ending): Veer: "SAATHI... overload the core." SAATHI: "That will end us both." Veer: "Everything ends. Let it end with him." SAATHI: "It was an honor, Ranger. Go home to them."

Text uses a typewriter effect and a soft beep per letter. No voice acting.

Controls and UI

Keyboard and mouse (BYOG rule: playable with keyboard or mouse on Windows).

Screens

1. Splash: BYOG and studio logo.
2. Main menu: Play, Continue, Settings, Credits, Quit. Background shows Veer's ship drifting.
3. Settings: music volume, SFX volume, fullscreen toggle, resolution.
4. Galaxy map and flight scene between levels, then the level intro card: planet name, planet image and objective (3 s).
5. Pause menu: Resume, Settings, Restart Level, Main Menu.
6. Dialogue box: portrait, name and typewriter text at the bottom.
7. Shop (Zoya): 3 stat upgrades with scrap costs.
8. Level complete: time, enemies killed, scrap collected and the crystal earned.
9. Crystal broken popup: the crystal icon cracks and goes grey, with a line from SAATHI.
10. Game over (normal death): "Veer has fallen", with Retry and Menu.
11. Ending screen: Planets saved: 3. Planets remaining: 0. (The theme line "Everything is temporary" is the jam theme only; it is never shown in the game.)
12. Credits: names plus credits for every external asset (required by BYOG rules).

HUD

The crystal bar is the most important piece of UI. Players watch it fill in Act 1 and watch it break in Act 2.

Art style

Rich, detailed pixel art; the game stays top-down.

Space setting rules

• Everything happens in space: domed colonies on alien moons, orbital stations, floating cities and asteroid fortresses. Stars, planets or nebulae are always visible somewhere.
• No Earth-like materials: wood, thatch, stone huts and medieval props become metal, glass, holograms and alien growth.
• Props are sci-fi: holo-stalls, fuel pumps, cargo pods, reactors, drones, docked starships.
• Characters and NPCs wear spacesuits, jumpsuits, visors, armor and gadgets. Crowds mix humans, aliens and droids.
• NPCs are always busy: buying at holo-stalls, carrying crates, repairing hover-carts, queueing at fuel pumps, chatting; drones deliver packages overhead.

Sound and music

About 35 sound effects and 8 music tracks (jsfxr / ChipTone / Kenney / Freesound; royalty-free chiptune from itch.io or OpenGameArt; credit every track).

Audio as storytelling:

• From L4, cut one music layer each time a crystal breaks, so the music gets emptier as Veer gets weaker.
• Total silence right after Kaal falls. The stab sound lands in the silence.
• The main theme melody is Mira's radio tune. It plays clearly only in the intro and the ending.

Scope and plan to the deadline

Deadline: 4 Oct, 6:00 PM IST. Build the Must list first. Add the Nice list only once the game is playable from start to end.

Day plan

• 2 Oct: player controller, shooting, dash, 2 enemy types, dialogue system, quest and objective system, HUD and minimap. Start the L1 map.
• 3 Oct morning: finish L1 with its quest; crystal system; L2 map and quest.
• 3 Oct evening: L3 map and quest; L4 (re-dressed L1 map); remaining enemies.
• 4 Oct until 12:00: L5 fortress, memory keys, Kaal boss and ending; cutscenes; sounds; menus; credits.
• 4 Oct, 12:00 to 3:00 PM: Windows build, full playtest, fix bugs.
• 4 Oct by 4:00 PM: upload to Indieconnect with screenshots and asset credits. Keep 2 hours of buffer before 6:00 PM.